Barclays to cut 5,000 jobs, citing AI efficiency gains

Barclays said Thursday it is cutting about 5,000 jobs, roughly 5% of its workforce, this year. The bank says artificial intelligence and other technology are letting it lower fixed costs and lift returns, Reuters reported. Chief Financial Officer Anna Cross told reporters that 1,000 of the cuts have already been made and the other 4,000 will come by the end of the fourth quarter.cnbc.com

The bank announced the plan with its third-quarter results. In its earnings statement, Barclays said it was "structurally reducing the cost base to generate capacity for investment," with the cuts coming from "organizational simplification and technology change efficiency driven by AI," CNBC reported.reuters.com

Support roles and developers hit

About 60% of the cuts will fall on support functions, including developers, Cross said. Reuters called this one of the clearest signs yet of a big bank using AI to reduce headcount in those roles. Barclays had about 93,000 employees worldwide at the end of 2025, according to Bloomberg reporting carried by Business Standard.live.euronext.com+1

Chief Executive C.S. Venkatakrishnan said the cuts were "a result of the investments which we've made into technology over a number of years and which we continue to make," according to the PA news agency. On a call with reporters he also downplayed the role of the technology. "We will employ AI at scale," he said. "But AI is the icing on the cake, not the cake".business-standard.com+1

Barclays booked £201 million of structural cost actions in the third quarter and expects about £300 million more in the fourth, Investing.com reported.finance.yahoo.com

Trading weakness clouds results

Pretax profit rose 12% from a year earlier to £2.3 billion, in line with LSEG-compiled forecasts. Group income of £7.4 billion fell short of analysts' estimates, and return on tangible equity dropped to 11.7% from 16.1%. Fixed-income trading revenue fell 19% to £1 billion. That was a steeper drop than the 5% decline at US peers and below forecasts of £1.3 billion. Equities trading partly made up the gap, with revenue up 47%. The bank also announced a share buyback of up to £500 million. Shares moved in both directions in early London trading.cnbc.com+2

A wider pattern

The cuts add to growing evidence that AI is starting to affect jobs. Challenger, Gray & Christmas says AI has been cited in US job-cut announcements covering 120,136 positions, or 21% of all cuts, making it the leading stated reason. The Federal Reserve's October Beige Book found that firms in five of its 12 districts had cut staff through attrition, delayed hiring or expected to create fewer jobs after AI-driven productivity gains, MarketWatch News Corp ↘ 0.53% reported. Even so, unemployment remains relatively low in both the United States and Britain, the outlet noted.marketwatch.com